Vajra Sect, they've got some seriously good stuff.
Ever since Ouyang Feng fell into the Central Plains trap and never came back, the Vajra Sect started to rise in the Western Regions. With the Xiaoyao Sect shutting itself off from the world, staying above the fray, Elder Vajra became the top dog among the Western countries. Plus, rumor has it that the Vajra Sect is tight with the Yuan-Mongol empire, and now that Yuan-Mongol is steamrolling the land, loads of people are lining up to join. Elder Vajra has definitely stashed away a ton of good stuff.
Now, all that good stuff belongs to Jill Young.
"Oh, so it was him—Shaolin Fireworker! I finally remembered his name!" While flipping through the secret manual of Ironhead Technique, Jill Young suddenly had a flash of inspiration about Elder Vajra’s backstory, but then scratched her head, puzzled: Didn’t he practice the Nine Yang Divine Skill? Why’d he switch to Ironhead Technique? And didn’t he jump off Wudang Mountain after losing to Zhang Sanfeng and turn into a stone egg? How’d he end up bossing people around in the Western Regions?
Well, anyone who’s confused by this just isn’t reading the books properly. Let this be a lesson: Always read the original novel, never just watch that one Jet Li movie—even if it was pretty awesome.
Quick intro to Shaolin Fireworker: He started out as a boiler room worker at Shaolin Temple on Songshan Mountain, but after suffering endless workplace injuries due to poor management, he finally fought back. He endured for years and managed to swipe Shaolin’s trade secrets. He played dumb, trained hard, and when he finally mastered his skills, he made a splash at the company conference. He just wanted to vent his frustrations, but thanks to a misunderstanding, he took out one of Shaolin’s execs. After dealing with the colleagues who bullied him, he stormed out of Shaolin, making a big scene.
This story, at least from the mainstream Central Plains perspective in this world, is pure heresy and totally against the natural order. But if you think about it like a web novel, it’s got that same "don’t bully the poor kid" vibe you see in those sky-defying stories—actually, it’s pretty satisfying.
Jill Young’s take? Who cares about ancient grudges—now it’s time for a little black-on-black action! Hand over those Shaolin trade secrets, pronto!
Ironhead Technique, Iron Arm Technique, Iron Shirt Technique, Iron Leg Technique—the whole ‘Iron’ set. Shaolin Fireworker mastered them all and spilled every secret.
Back when he was secretly learning martial arts, he couldn’t get his hands on any top-tier internal skills, so he poured everything into external techniques. Turns out, he had serious talent for hard skills, so he trained them to perfection. When he fought Jill Young, his strength, speed, and reflexes were all lacking. If he hadn’t mastered those Iron techniques to an extreme level, he wouldn’t have lasted this long.
Aside from the Iron techniques, he didn’t know much else. Technically, he could do Vajra Palm and Vajra Finger Strength, but really, those were just powered by Iron Arm Technique. The methods were incomplete—just fragments, more for show than anything.
Even so, grabbing a full set of Iron techniques is a huge win for the Freewind Sect.
"This Iron Arm Technique is way better than Ironhand Blade," Jill Young mused after reading through the manual, quickly grasping the strengths of these external skills. Comparing the two, Shaolin’s ‘Iron’ series is seriously worth researching. When it comes to body-protection skills, it’s way ahead of that other martial arts world.
For example, in that other world, King Copper Axe was already a master of body-hardening techniques. But if you put King Copper Axe and Shaolin Fireworker side by side—no external energy, just pure physical showdown—Shaolin Fireworker wins, hands down.
But, if you add external energy to the mix, Shaolin Fireworker’s toast.
"Even if you max out external techniques, it’s really hard to block internal energy attacks. Honestly, these body-protection skills are just beginner stuff. Still, I didn’t expect him to break all limits and toughen his body so much—he’s a real anomaly!" Wu Zhengfeng pondered, "I’ve heard Shaolin has a whole Vajra line of hard skills, like Vajra Kick, Vajra Palm, and Golden Bell Shield. They’re supposed to be great at blocking internal energy too."
"So Shaolin’s got a whole set of hard skills?" Jill Young turned to Shaolin Fireworker. "Is it really that complete?"
"Absolutely." The big guy nodded honestly. "There’s a saying among Shaolin monks: First comes Iron, then Vajra, and only when you’re truly invincible are you the strongest. Shaolin’s skills have layers—master the Iron techniques, and you can move on to the Gold ones. If you max out the Gold techniques and fuse them together, you can train in the Diamond Invincibility Technique. Legend has it Bodhidharma himself practiced Diamond Invincibility, and not even blades, axes, fire, poison, or internal energy could harm him."
At this, Elder Vajra couldn’t help but look wistful, and Jill Young was instantly fascinated by these body-protection hard skills. Whether Bodhidharma existed or not is still up for debate, but the skills themselves probably aren’t made up. A shadow of the Black Death Emperor flashed through her mind, and she made up her mind on the spot—Diamond Invincibility, gotta get it!
"I should swing by Shaolin Temple sometime and chat with the old monks." Jill Young nodded and flipped through the book, suddenly grinning as she waved it in the air: "Oh ho, you old rascal, you even practiced this? Still got that wild streak, huh!"
Wu Zhengfeng squinted at the manual, and the cover read ‘Iron Groin Technique.’ She blushed and spat, “Shameless! Men practicing hard skills always have a weak spot, so this technique was invented to patch that up. It’s not about being wild and youthful at all.”
“Patch up the weak spot?” Jill Young was totally unfazed, as bold as Tianshan’s black. “So, tell me, do women have a weak spot when they train body-protection skills? Should we practice this too? And for hard skills, you’re supposed to whack yourself with sticks and smash bricks, right? Is Iron Groin Technique trained the same way?”
"Uh..." Wu Zhengfeng looked like she’d been struck by lightning—Jill Young’s lack of shame was something else.
"Ahem..." The big guy coughed awkwardly and carefully asked, "You two don’t seem like Shaolin folks. Judging by this lady’s strength, are you from Vajra Monastery? If you are, I swear—I never stole your sect’s secret techniques!"
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"Huh?" Jill Young was all question marks.
Vajra Sect? Vajra Monastery? Who can tell them apart?
Since this whole thing ties into a bunch of backstory, let’s break it down. Jill Young asked casually, the big guy explained, and suddenly Jill felt like lightning had struck—this coincidence actually had something to do with her.
Here’s how it went down.
In the Western Regions, there’s a Vajra Sect, founded by this big guy. At the same time, there’s Vajra Monastery—a name that sounds like some knockoff college, but it’s actually way more legit than Vajra Sect. It’s a major branch of Tibetan Buddhism.
Vajra Monastery doesn’t have a lot of people, but they’ve always produced top-tier masters. Their signature technique is famous for being easy to start but insanely hard to master. A few years back, Vajra Monastery was riding high—the very first Imperial Preceptor of Yuan-Mongol was their leader.
Yep, that leader was Master Golden Wheel. And that technique? Dragon Elephant Wisdom Art.
Lately, the big guy and his crew have been on edge, attacking anyone who looks strong—because folks from Vajra Monastery are coming to settle the score with him.
Hearing this, Jill Young just chuckled helplessly—Big Guy, our fight wasn’t for nothing. Turns out, I’m pretty tight with Master Golden Wheel myself.
Let’s keep going—the next part’s even juicier:
The big guy’s been in the Western Regions for ages, but his roots are shallow. Plus, he’s a martial arts nut with zero business sense, so Vajra Sect never got very big. He’s tough, but the sect’s growth is limited. Meanwhile, Vajra Monastery has dominated Tibet for ages—it’s the strongest branch of Esoteric Buddhism’s martial lineage and commands huge respect. They even produced the Mongol Imperial Preceptor, so their reputation is massive.
With such a huge gap in strength, now that rumors say Vajra Monastery folks are coming for him, of course he’s freaking out.
To deal with the crisis, the big guy went all out and actually started using his brain. He came up with a plan to cover his weaknesses.
He gathered a crew, took control of the bandits, and quickly spun up a network of interests, even kidnapping laborers to search for White Camel Manor. That’s where all those sand-diggers outside came from. After a massive digging operation, luck finally paid off—he found the secret manual for Toad Style.
"Since we’re on the topic, might as well take Toad Style too." Jill Young seized the moment to claim Ouyang Feng’s ultimate move. Elder Vajra could only sigh with a twisted face, but there was nothing he could do—just had to swallow his tears.
"Wait a sec," Jill Young suddenly thought of something. "Why are the Vajra Monastery people after you, anyway?"
From a god’s-eye view: In the original timeline—the Jin Yong novel—Shaolin Fireworker never had strong internal skills, and Vajra Sect didn’t even have Toad Style in their repertoire. The big guy maxed out his hard skills, but for internal energy, he was weaker than his future disciples. (See ‘The Heaven Sword and Dragon Saber.’)
Things turned out totally different from the original, and it all started because Vajra Monastery forced his hand. Their grudge is the real reason the story went off the rails.
But the big guy’s answer surprised everyone—including Jill Young and Wu Zhengfeng: "Because the Esoteric Buddhists are convinced one of our people went on a killing spree inside Vajra Monastery."
"A killing spree?" Jill Young was genuinely shocked. "Someone went on a rampage in Master Golden Wheel’s own sect?"
Wu Zhengfeng was stunned too: "Even I’ve heard of Vajra Monastery’s reputation—so many masters there, who could possibly cause such chaos?"
"I don’t know either, just that the culprit was ruthless. The story goes, he joined Vajra Monastery as a disciple. They saw his talent and let him in, gave him chores to test his character, and when he passed, they welcomed him with high hopes. But he poisoned everyone—killed all the monks in the temple!"
"They say he was especially cruel—he dug up all the Buddha Relics from the elders and excavated every Relic Pearl from the pagoda forest. Worst of all, after copying the ultimate inheritance, Dragon Elephant Wisdom Art, he destroyed the original! There was only one copy, never allowed to be duplicated. Except for the leader, disciples were taught in layers. The villain destroyed the original, and now no one in Esoteric Buddhism knows the full Dragon Elephant Wisdom Art."
"Using the Buddha Relics and Relic Pearls, he mastered Dragon Elephant Wisdom Art in no time—reaching the level Master Golden Wheel had once achieved. When other branches of Esoteric Buddhism heard, they tried to hunt him down, but he killed dozens and walked away." Elder Vajra sighed, "With a feud this deep, of course Vajra Monastery wants revenge. Later, we learned from insiders that the whole world was hunting for the culprit, but eventually, they decided he was one of us—Vajra Sect! Me, I..."
Elder Vajra couldn’t find the right word. Before ‘collateral damage’ was invented, there really wasn’t a good way to express his mix of outrage and helplessness.
"Hmph, you reap what you sow," Wu Zhengfeng snarked. "You once snuck into Shaolin, stole secret techniques, killed your master, and ran off. You’re not much better than that villain. Like master, like disciple—no wonder Vajra Sect is the prime suspect."
"Sigh..." Elder Vajra had nothing left to say. Even he felt the villain’s actions were eerily familiar, like someone had copied his own moves. Not to mention everyone else.
"Wait." Jill Young squinted and stroked her chin. "What’s the name of the person who slaughtered Vajra Monastery?"
Suddenly, she remembered someone, and a guess popped into her mind. If she was right, she knew everyone involved in this mess.
"Sigh..." Elder Vajra let out a long breath, looking as unlucky as mud in his pants, and answered in defeat, "That person’s name is King Kong..."